Explore and Create

Type:

Standalone Unity Game, Interactive Exhibit

Year:

2015

Role:

High-Level Designer, Programmer

Team Size:

8

At the end of every school year, the Interactive Media department at Bradley University puts on an exhibit to showcase its students’ accomplishments and projects. In 2015, the show was put on at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. In addition to portfolio showcases and compendium reels, several groups assembles interactive exhibits for museum-goers (mostly young children and their parents!) to play with, and learn from.

I was part of a team of 8 students that produced a virtual reality exhibit, called “Explore and Create.” This exhibit showed off the power of virtual reality using the Oculus Rift headset with a front-mounted Leap Motion hand sensor. Participants could make hand gestures to throw balls of paint around in their environment and just generally make a royal mess.

I was one of several programmers on the team working to get the two pieces of hardware to talk to one another, to make realistic gesture-detection, and to simulate basic paint projectiles that could paint over the environment.

Explore and Create was one of the highest-traffic exhibits during the show that year, and was enjoyed universally by children as young as 8, and adults and elderly as old as 70.